water Article Shoreline Dynamics and Evaluation of Cultural Heritage Sites on the Shores of Large Reservoirs: Kuibyshev Reservoir, Russian Federation Ionut Cristi Nicu 1,* , Bulat Usmanov 2 , Iskander Gainullin 3 and Madina Galimova 3 1 High North Department, Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research (NIKU), Fram Centre, N-9296 Tromsø, Norway 2 Department of Landscape Ecology, Institute of Environmental Sciences, Kazan Federal University, 5 Tovarisheskaya Street, 420097 Kazan, Russia; [email protected] 3 Khalikov Institute of Archaeology, 30 Butlerova Street, 420012 Kazan, Russia; [email protected] (I.G.); [email protected] (M.G.) * Correspondence: [email protected] or [email protected]; Tel.: +47-98063607 Received: 15 February 2019; Accepted: 20 March 2019; Published: 21 March 2019 Abstract: Over the last decades, the number of artificial reservoirs around the world has considerably increased. This leads to the formation of new shorelines, which are highly dynamic regarding erosion and deposition processes. The present work aims to assess the direct human action along the largest reservoir in Europe—Kuibyshev (Russian Federation) and to analyse threatened cultural heritage sites from the coastal area, with the help of historical maps, UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle), and topographic surveys. This approach is a necessity, due to the oscillating water level, local change of climate, and to the continuous increasing of natural hazards (in this case coastal erosion) all over the world. Many studies are approaching coastal areas of the seas and oceans, yet there are fewer studies regarding the inland coastal areas of large artificial reservoirs. Out of the total number of 1289 cultural heritage sites around the Kuibyshev reservoir, only 90 sites are not affected by the dam building; the rest had completely disappeared under the reservoir’s water. The scenario of increasing and decreasing water level within the reservoir has shown the fact that there must be water oscillations greater than ±1 m in order to affect the cultural heritage sites. The results show that the coastal area is highly dynamic and that the complete destruction of the last remaining Palaeolithic site (Beganchik) from the shoreline of Kuibyshev reservoir is imminent, and immediate mitigation measures must be undertaken. Keywords: cultural heritage; shoreline dynamics; GIS; UAV; Palaeolithic; Volga; European Russia 1. Introduction The construction of large reservoirs along the large rivers of the world has, eventually, different effects: Local micro-climate modifications, disruption on the river flow regime [1], sediment transport [2,3], fauna [4], water chemistry [5], shore morphology [6–8], archaeology [9], fish yields [10], among other issues. They can also act as a place where different types of pollutants accumulate, and, in this way, it is easier to assess historical pollution [11]. One of the main effects is the triggering and the fast mechanic action of waves. These effects are accentuated by the global climatic changes, which are exponentially increasing every year. Many studies deal with risk assessment [12,13], management [14,15], vulnerability [16–18], conservation strategies [19,20] and sustainability issues [21] regarding the cultural heritage of the coastal areas of seas and oceans. However, there is a lack of studies dealing with inland shorelines of large man-made reservoirs [22]. The Volga River is the largest river in Europe with a basin area of Water 2019, 11, 591; doi:10.3390/w11030591 www.mdpi.com/journal/water Water 2019, 11, 591 2 of 18 Water 2019, 11, x FOR PEER REVIEW 2 of 19 1,360,000 km2;; it it is is considered considered the the main main river river in Russia, and its basin represents the most significantsignificant economic region in Russia [[23].23]. During the the Soviet Union, there was a usual practice to flood flood large territories in order to obtain electricity electricity and and to to relo relocatecate a a large large number number of of inhabitants inhabitants and and their their houses. houses. Unfortunately, culturalcultural heritageheritage sitessites dodo notnot enterenter thisthis category;category; theythey cannotcannot bebe relocatedrelocated oror moved.moved. During the Soviet period (the late 1930s), the “Great Volga Scheme” was initiated; the purpose was the construction of a chain of dams along th thee Volga River and one of itsits majormajor tributaries—thetributaries—the Kama River. The reservoirs of the Volga-Kama casc cascadeade are one of the largest cascades in the world, totaling 11 reservoirs (Figure 11,, TableTable1 ).1). The The main main purpose purpose of of the the dams dams was was to to produce produce electricity; electricity; before the 1930s, the Volga was used only for transport and fishingfishing [[24,25].24,25]. As As shown shown in in Table Table 11,, Kuibyshev reservoir has the largest surface and thethe highesthighest numbernumber ofof typestypes ofof uses.uses. There have been limited studies referring to the destruction of archaeological sites around the Kuibyshev reservoir [26,27], [26,27], but but there there are are no studies referring referring to to the the entire entire surface surface of of the the reservoir. reservoir. Therefore, thisthis study study is is necessary necessary to assessto assess the exactthe exact number number of sites of impactedsites impacted by the reservoirby the reservoir creation creationin 1957 and in 1957 to draw and attention to draw forattention local authorities for local authorities in their mission in their for mission future management for future management plans [28] of plansthe shoreline [28] of the area shoreline [29]. A detailedarea [29]. case A detailed study was case chosen study towas demonstrate chosen to demonstrate the destructive the potentialdestructive of wavepotential erosion; of wave this erosion; was accomplished this was accomplished by a systematic by monitoringa systematic process. monitoring The mainprocess. scope The of main this articlescope ofis (1)this to article track theis major(1) to changestrack the of major the Volga changes River of after the theVolga construction River after of thethe Kuibyshevconstruction reservoir of the withKuibyshev the help reservoir of GIS (2) with to identify the help the of area(s) GIS that(2) containto identify the highestthe area(s) concentration that contain of archaeological the highest concentrationsites (3) to analyse of archaeological how many archaeological sites (3) to analyse sites were how impacted many archaeological following the sites construction were impacted of the followingreservoir (4)the to construction monitor the of evolution the reservoir of the (4) only to leftmonitor Palaeolithic the evolution site—Beganchik of the only from left the Palaeolithic shores of site—BeganchikKuibyshev reservoir, from which the shores has been of Kuibyshev specifically reserv chosenoir, becausewhich has of itsbeen high specifically erosion rates. chosen because of its high erosion rates. Figure 1. DetailDetail of of the the reservoirs of the Volga-Kama cascade. Water 2019, 11, 591 3 of 18 Table 1. The main characteristics of reservoirs from the Volga-Kama cascade [24,25] (the numbers in the first column correspond to the reservoirs from Figure1). Volume (km3) No. Crt. YOC RA (km2) IC (103 kW) AO (109 kWh) TOU Total Useful 1 1937 327 1.2 1 30 0.12 WNWrFPR 2 1940 249 1.2 0.8 110 0.25 PNWRF 3 1941 4550 25.4 16.6 330 1.05 PNWFFlWrRT 4 1956 1770 8.7 2.8 520 1.4 PNWFWrRT 5 1981 3780 12.6 5.4 1404 3.3 PNWRFWrT 6 1958 6500 57.3 33.9 2300 10.2 PNFIWFlWrRT 7 1968 1950 12.8 1.7 1290 5.3 PNWFlRTWr 8 1960 3165 31.4 8.2 2530 10 PNWFlFiWrRT 9 1956 1845 12.2 9.8 504 1.7 PTNFiWFRWr 10 1961 1130 9.4 3.7 1000 2.2 PNTWFiRWr 11 1978 2305 13.8 4.6 1080 2.8 PNTWFiRWr Legend: YOC—year of commissioning; RA—reservoir area; IC—installed capacity; AO—annual output; TOU—type of use; Fi—fishery, Fl—flood control, I—irrigation, Navigation, P—power production, R—recreation, T—timber rafting, W—water supply, Wr—water releases (sanitary, irrigation). 2. Study Area Kuibyshev reservoir is a result of the construction of the Zhiguli Hydroelectric Station, Samara region, located between Zhigulevsk city (right bank of the Volga) and Tolyatti (left bank of the Volga); the reservoir covers the territory of regions Chuvash, Tatarstan, Ulyanovsk, and Samara. Kuibyshev reservoir has a surface of 6450 km2, a volume of water of 58 km3, a length of approximately 510 km, a mean depth of 9.3 m; these impressive numbers make it the largest reservoir in Europe [30], with a sedimentation rate of 8 mm/year. Important changes occurred in what concerns the sedimentation rate, which has fallen to 2.7–2.9 mm/year, after the commissioning of the dam in 1957. One of the main sources of sediments is a result of the abrasion processes, collapses of a huge amount of sediments into the reservoir [25,31]. Our area of interest is located in Tatarstan region (Figure2a), on the left bank of Kuibyshev reservoir (Figure2b), at the junction of Kama River in the Volga, about 75 km south-east of the city of Kazan (the capital city of Tatarstan). Beganchik site is located at approximately 2.8 km North-east of Izmeri village and 1.5 km north-west of Komintern village, on an isolated hill of the terrace above the floodplain; on the left bank of the confluence of Kama and Volga rivers, at the mouth of Aktai river (Figure2c, Figure3a). The geology of the area consists of Permian, Pliocene and Quaternary deposits. Quaternary sediments are dominant in Volga-Kama terraces, eight palaeohydrological phases were identified from high and low fluvial activity; the most recent active phase corresponds to the Little Ice Age [32]. There is a limited number of studies regarding the evolution of the coastal area in the Tatarstan region, Russia [25], along with the analysis of landslides [33] and gully erosion [34].